Does the public really care that singer Jessica Simpson has gained a few pounds or is “the media” showing its sexist overtones by concentrating on the “issue” as if it had international importance?
Last night, in a live interview prior to the Superbowl, even President Obama mentioned the biggest bit of non-news in passing when Matt Lauer showed him he had been cropped out of a cover photo on People Magazine. “They cut you out to make room for Jessica Simpson”, said Lauer, holding up the magazine and looking for Obama’s reaction to the “snub”, in a very light-hearted moment. “Who apparently has a weight issue”, said Obama, reading the headline. The Prez wasn’t being flip, he was just playing along with Lauer’s joke that he had been edited out of a beautiful photo of his family. But Simpson must have at least blushed, if she was watching!
Jess’s little sister Ashley, Kim Kardashian, several other actresses and even Donald Trump have made statements about Simpson’s weight. My GOODNESS what is going on here? One New York Post writer who’s steeped in sexist sarcasm, wrote about Ashley’s dismay over the concentration on her sister’s weight by saying, “she defended her big (and I mean big!) sister out of one side of her plastic surgery altered face!” Is it any wonder we’re raising little girls who have body issues, when absolutely beautiful women are being publicly vilified because they’ve gone up a dress size or chose to lop off the end of their hookish nose?
Somewhere, there’s a woman in a story meeting in a boardroom who is involved with ensuring that the “Jessica Simpson weight issue” remains on the cover of the publication she works for. She doesn’t have the guts to say, you know what people, it’s time to move on from this young woman who is happy and has many fans. She isn’t hooked on a drug that’s making her ill. She isn’t bloated to an unhealthy size because she’s trying to off herself via Doritos and beer. She has put on a few pounds. Big deal. Aren’t there more pressing and truly important things to spill our ink on?